Council to mayor: not so fast on Country Club Dr.

By Brandi Makuski

Rather than immediately pay for what’s being called an “unexpected” complete rebuild of Country Club Dr. in the Town of Hull, the Stevens Point City Council on Monday agreed to only seek the costs of funding temporary repairs so the road can survive next winter.

The city will eventually discuss adding the reconstruction project to its 2020 capital improvements budget, but members of the city council say they’re not about to be rushed into a decision.

Mayor Mike Wiza announced May 14 the city had decided to “partner” with Hull on rebuilding the uneven and pothole-laden stretch of road, though later that day Town Chairman John Holdridge said he had not, up to then, spoken with Wiza on the matter.

The city is bound by a 1985 contract with the town agreeing to a 70/30 cost-sharing for roadway improvements costing over $1,000, as the half-mile stretch of Hull roadway connects two key parts of the city, the Stevens Point Business Park and the Hwy. 10 East corridor.

Under that agreement, the city would be responsible for an estimated $155,000 in costs for the project, not including swales needed to reduce standing water on the road surface, which Stevens Point Public Works Director Scott Beduhn said would mean sacrificing other projects planned for 2019 in the city—most notably, he said, was the replacement of a section of Nebel St.

City Treasurer Corey Ladick said the city could opt to increase its borrowing for 2019, something that would require a supermajority vote by the city council to amend the annual budget approved last November.

Wiza admitted his office made the decision to move forward quickly so the road could be rebuilt before winter.

“In the normal process, we’d be talking about road repair in October for the following year,” Wiza said on Monday. “We are in a time crunch now so if we want to do something this year, we’ve got to get that process rolling, because we don’t want to start making approvals in August and Septemeber, and then run into winter and not get it done.”

But Wiza’s zeal for the project wasn’t shared by the board of public works, the body which discussed the issue before a final vote at city council on Monday. The board, and the council, ultimately agreed to only seek costs for temporary fixes until a complete reconstruction project could be properly planned.

“I think if we move quickly, we do so at our peril,” said Councilwoman Mary Kneebone (District 7). “I think we need to design this road for the future, not for the ‘now’. If the problem is (standing) water, just filling holes isn’t going to help. I think we need to let the engineers have an opportunity to decide what’s going to make this road right for all users.”

Councilwoman Tori Jennings (District 1) said the mayor may have given the public an inaccurate idea of what’s going to happen on the roadway, pointing to his social media announcement about the project.

“I really didn’t appreciate it, mayor, that you got on Facebook making claims that this is a done deal before council even saw this,” Jennings said. “I object to that.”

Jennings added she believes “incredibly poor planning, poor engineering, and poor decisionmaking” on the Hoover Ave./Country Club Dr. overpass, which opened with great fanfare in 2018, helped cause the deterioration of Hull’s stretch of Country Club Dr., and city coffers are now being pinched as a result.

Alderman Jeremy Slowsinski (District 6) said he also had concerns, admitting he wasn’t in favor of “bandaids” on any road, adding, “if we try to rush this now, and we miss something, and it could potentially be costly in the future…I think it’s definitely worth the money now to do a temporary fix, then do this right next year.”

Council President Meleesa Johnson said there are “many Stevens Point streets that are woefully…they’re in dire straights.”

“And I’ve had calls from more of my constituents on this than on any other thing in my three terms,” Johnson said. “My constituents are angry—there are streets that are bad all over the place. Based on my experience in bidding projects, you don’t do it hastily.”

Beduhn said putting any project out to bid now was a risk, as most construction companies already had full schedules for the rest of the year, and suggested it be done in early 2020. He added his department had already been working to survey the road in anticipation of the rebuild, even before Wiza announced he wanted to project to move forward this year.

Wiza suggested the city should instead use an outside firm to survey the road.

“Since it’s a Town of Hull road, it seems to make more sense to have a third-party, outside engineering firm do the work so that—not that it would happen, but—20 years from now, 15 years from now, something does go wrong, someone might be able to say it was the city engineering that caused the problem,” Wiza said.

Slowsinski made a motion permitting Beduhn to seek more definitive cost estimates on the temporary repairs and to return to the board of public works with those numbers for approval, hopefully, in June.

Wiza, who is a voting member of the board of public works, was the sole vote against the move.

“The need is there…two months ago,” Wiza said. “If we continue to drag our feet on this, the people who use that road, the people who live on that road, are going to continue to experience things…we’re pushing construction out for repairs at least another month until we approve it, at least another month before they get started. And something needs to be done sooner, rather than later.”

Leaders in Hull will meet at 10 a.m. on Wednesday to discuss the town’s contribution to the project. It was not immediately known if anyone from the city would be in attendance.